Josh Brolin Tries to Clarify Quotes on James Cameron & Turning Down ‘Avatar’ Album

August 12, 2017 04:00 Views: 14

Josh Brolin is not the kind of guy you want to tick off, hence his casting as both Thanos and Cable in the superhero universe. He seems upset about how the James Cameron quotes in his Esquire profile were interpreted. That much is clear. However, it’s not clear if he’s mad that the quotes were taken out of context in the profile itself, or in subsequent posts suggesting a feud, or both, or what. He even just posted “I don’t know him” of Cameron, which confuses it all further. What the hell was he talking about then?

For your own context, here’s that part of the lengthy Esquire profile, starting with a quote from “Only the Brave” director Joseph Kosinski:

“My first impression of Josh,” Kosinski tells me, “was how honest he was. He’s genuinely a good dude.” After five minutes with Brolin, you can see what Kosinski means. Brolin not only tells me about turning down a role in the sequel to Avatar, he also has no problem admitting the decision caused tension between him and the director. “If I don’t want to do Avatar,” he says, “I’m not going to do Avatar. James Cameron’s f*cking calling me this name and that name. Whatever. If James Cameron came to me and said, ‘Hey, man, why’d you say that?’ I’d go, ‘Because it happened.'”

Did it happen, or was that just an example of what he’d say? The line about James Cameron calling Josh Brolin names made the media rounds after the profile came out, and in a new Instagram post, Brolin tried to clarify the situation:

Press: Quit making problems where they don’t exist. In this month’s Esquire my diatribe on films I might have turned down in the past in place of whatever artistic path I wanted to be on at that time I take full responsibility for and was spoken about in light jest. James Cameron has little to nothing to do with it. I don’t know him nor would I ever rely on anyone involving conjecture. That said, I’ve had enough imbroglios in my past to know that anything can be taken out of context and exploited beautifully for profit. So let this be one of them as another notch in Hollywood’s circus belt of Swiss cheese. #swisscheesepress #sincity

Fans enjoyed his little jab at the press, but what was he doing talking about James Cameron in the first place if he doesn’t know him, and what was the full context of that “Avatar” story? Maybe he’s just afraid to make James Cameron angry, since he’s also someone you really don’t want to tick off.

Brolin’s “Only the Brave” comes out October 20. He’ll later return as Thanos in “Avengers: Infinity War” on May 4, 2018, and debut as Cable in “Deadpool 2” on June 1, 2018.